What is the goal of content marketing? The answer varies from company to company and sometimes from department to department; maybe you want page views, sales, or engagement. The key to any successful marketing strategy is to first understand the wants and needs of your client beyond what is outlined in an RFP or SOW. Knowing clients’ underlying expectations from the beginning will give you a clear understanding of how to best measure your performance. This also allows you to make improvements and pivot where necessary to utilize your strengths in your marketing and outreach.
Beginning
In order to measure your successes with clients, let’s review how a project should start. Begin the kickoff meeting with a clear discussion about deliverables and timing. Think about ‘why’: Why do they want this marketing campaign? Why do they want to use this channel? Asking ‘why’ will allow you to better understand your clients’ motivations, objectives and vision. From there, move on to ask clarifying questions like: What do you hope to gain? What goal does this move forward or accomplish? Is your audience already engaged with this channel? Asking these questions gives your client a chance to express clear, measurable expectations and for you to guide them to the best outcome.
Middle
During a project, check in with your client and communicate transparent progress updates. You can also get a sense of how close you are to their vision and what frequency of communication is needed as the project continues. These checkpoints provide opportunities to correct and improve your work and strengthen your relationships with clients.
End
Don’t forget the last step of any good collaboration. After completing the deliverables outlined at the beginning of the project, be sure to wrap up with a thorough debrief. Your wrap-up should include some way to learn what your clients liked about working with you and what (if anything) they didn’t like. This can take the form of a meeting, call, follow-up email, or even a brief survey to measure how the project went.
- Some questions to ask at this time include:
- How would you rate the quality of the product?
- How satisfied are you with the product?
- How satisfied are you with the speed of delivery?
- How satisfied were you with complaint resolution?
- How would you rate the value for the money?
- How would you rate the ease of doing business?
- What did you like about the process?
- What can be improved?
- How likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague?
Use these results to adjust your process in the future and continue to grow as a business focused on client happiness.
Image courtesy of Kindel Media via Pexels.